The new website had dramatically improved the public face of ASHM presenting a more professional and up to date interface to anonymous visitors and health professionals in the region. We are delighted with the results.Terry Fairclough - ASHM

Newsletter - Australian Marine Conservation Society

The Australian Marine Conservation Society is a national charity that works with local groups to protect the ocean, its wildlife, and create marine national parks in order to preserve the ocean for future generations. This independent charity is funded through donations and they work with nationwide supporters to deliver their campaign to protect the coasts.

A vital part of their work is keeping supporters updated on campaign work and what the individual can do to help them in their campaign. On the AMCS website supporters are able to sign up to receive information updates via email.

Before the new website was brought in AMCS were finding it very difficult to inform supporters about important information and were relying on a time consuming system of sending out emails via Outlook Express. Due to the nature of this system they had to send out a limited amount of only 50 emails at a time and the information was poorly formatted with inconsistent results. There was no opportunity to personalise the message and the whole process was very time consuming.

After the new website was launched there was a corresponding increase in the number and size of the donations to support this vital work. At the same time the newsletter publishing system allowed them to segment different messages to different people or areas as they saw sit. This meant the messages were targeting and as a result the open rates and approval ratings improved dramatically.

One key area was the ability for a web form on the website to satisfy multiple requirements from the one submission. When a new campaign was being launched visitors could register their support for the project and at the same time send a mail merge letter to the minister responsible. (You can read more about this technique under subscribe forms in the user guide)

At the same time as newsletters are delivered to supporters, the same content automatically publishes to their website meaning they not only keep their supports informed but also add more content which the assists with search ranking and provides important information to new visitors to the organisation.

AMCS say that Customer Community brought to the project their expertise and support and that while the new system has been easy to use they did experience a few teething problems. What has constantly impressed them is the ongoing support and tolerance from the staff at Customer Community who will assist if any difficulties arise.

Since the new website went live and they have been able to send out newsletters easily the charity have seen significant increase in support and finance.

AMCS say they constantly receive positive feedback from supporters about the look of their newsletters and the amount of information contained within.

Thanks to the greater amount of contact with supporters the charity has seen their database of supporters grow and supporter donations increase exponentially.